Great. Another music blog. (2005-2013)

Tokyo Jihen indulges in some ‘Variety’

The next Tokyo Jihen album, titled Goraku (Variety), hits stores Sept. 26, so says Bounce.com. The new album contains 13 tracks, and the band heads out on tour in October. The special edition of the band’s next single, "OSCA", contains a special lottery ticket to win advanced tickets to the upcoming tour.

Comments

Damn it be all, I can not participate in this so-called “lottery”, nor can I purchase tickets from Lawson… I swear, I have to see them just once before they disband or something. On the other note, “Variety” sounds good, Ringo’s always had themes to her albums, and this sounds interesting.
Also, have you ever heard Nakashima Yumi’s solo album “Ten no Mikaku” Greg? I was really surprised by it, it was pretty “KZK”-esque.

CDJapan’s email says none of the tracks are written by Shiina Ringo. That seems so odd since the main appeal of any Shiina project is her songwriting. Then again, the first two TJ albums and the ShiinaxSaito project disappointed me, but I dug Osca just because it’s so damn weird.

I love Shiina Ringo’s solo stuff as well, but I also haven’t really liked any of her band works, expect for Shuraba and OSCA. Hopefully the title’s accurate enough and I’ll finally enjoy one of the band’s albums.

I don’t know if I was ever really convinced that Tokyo Jihen was anything more than support players. Shiina ultimately had control over the creative direction of the group, and while that’s not so different from Mukai Shuutoku with Number Girl and perhaps Kishida Shigeru with Quruli, the fact Shiina was a solo artist before forming the group changes the perception slightly. The fact she’s letting the guys in on some of the work certainly addresses that perception, and creatively, it’s a real gamble.
I remember checking out “Ten no Mikaku” a long while back, but I think it got lost in the cracks of other things I was listening to at the time. I can see where the KZK comparisons come from, but in my mind, to really be comparable to KZK, an album has to be extreme.
I’d almost — almost — say The Arcade Fire’s “Funeral” is comparable to KZK, but Win Butler ain’t no Shiina Ringo, that’s for sure. Not sure if I get that same sense from “Ten no Mikaku”. Then again, it’s been years since I listened to it.

As much as I prefer Ringo’s songwriting over that of some of the other members (well, pretty much only Kameda, since he’s arguably the weakest composer out of the four of them who can), I do agree with the comments made that it’s probably good for the growth of Jihen as a band. I trust her sense is sharp enough for her to include only the best tracks, so I’m really quite looking forward to the album.
“OSCA”, though, is incredibly WTF-inducing – and hell funky as well. Ukigumo’s got that knack. (I do hope one of the songs will be a Jihen remake of “oiran” or “MIRRORBALL”, though – I love the live of the latter so much, I’d be quite disappointed if it doesn’t appear on a Jihen CD sometime in the future.)

Yeah, Mirrorball and GONG, both of which are Ukigumo’s will probably wind up on the album. I heard they fixed Mirrorball, which I am excited to hear because holy shit the live version on JUST CAN’T HELP IT. is one of the worst things I’ve ever heard Ringohime do.